'nother new toy.
 

Picked up a new toy at the Allentown Gun Show this weekend. It's another New York gun, this one a bench rest rifle with bull barrel and false muzzle. It's got a "Mule Ear" percussion side lock on it and weighs in at 26 pounds. The bore is absolutely perfect and the outside has about 90% of the original finish left. The brass patchbox and inlays are a bit tarnished as are 3 silver inlays on the left side of the butt but . It has a globe front sight and a vernier tang sight. You load it using the false muzzle to protect the rifling at the end of the bore and to remind you that the false muzzle is still attached when you sight through the apeture, there is a "Paddle" attached to the false muzzle that blocks your view until you remove it. It has double set triggers and I would gestimate that the trigger pull is about 3 oz. I'm told that this particular rifle was capable of shooting 1" groups at 500 yards. I'll post pictures as soon as I can find my digital camera.

Murph,

Looking forward to pics of this one!

Does this rifle use strip patches laid cross-wise and a bullet starter to start the bullet down into the strip patches and on into the muzzle?

The false muzzle was a piece approximately 1 1/2 to 2" long, which had been cut off the end of the barrel during manufacture, after the bore had been cut, but before the rifling had been cut. Prior to being cut, four equidistant holes were drilled along the long axis of the barrel, from the muzzle end. After being cut, four pins were placed in the holes. The false muzzle was attached to the barrel, then the rifling was cut in both. The bore was reamed smooth at the other end to provide a "funnel" for the bullet being loaded. The false muzzle was placed on the end of the rifle, the base of the straight starter went on over that (with the patch and round placed on it), and finally the straight starter itself. All of this insured that the bullet would go into the rifle as straight as possible, and also protected the all-important rifling at the true muzzle. By this time, paper patches were being used for accuracy, in place of the linen patches. Paper patches are either cross or strip patches. Cross-style is cut with a special cross-shaped cutter, giving an "X" shaped piece of paper. Strip style is several narrow strips of paper, overlaid to give an "X" pattern or, with three strips, an asterisk (*) shaped six-point pattern. The paper was oiled with sperm whale oil (hardly available now!). The base of the straight starter generally had slots cut into it to place the patches in the proper orientation, with the bullet placed on the patch strips. The paper strips were found to be more accurate than the linen, as the bullet could be made to fit the bore more closely."

False muzle with cross patches and bullet starter.